Table Of ContentStorey
BASICS®
HOW TO MAKE
MAPLE SYRUP
From Gathering Sap
to Marketing Your Own Syrup
Alison and Steven Anderson
ß
Storey Publishing
The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by
publishing practical information that encourages
personal independence in harmony with the environment.
Edited by Sarah Guare and Deborah Burns
Art direction by Cynthia N. McFarland, based on a book design
by Alethea Morrison
Text production by Jennifer Jepson Smith
Cover illustration by © Lisel Ashlock
Interior illustrations by © Elayne Sears
Maps by Ilona Sherratt
Photograph on page v courtesy of the authors
Indexed by Christine R. Lindemer, Boston Road Communications
© 2014 by Steven and Alison Anderson
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from the publisher.
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Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .v
ChApter 1: the history of Maple Syrup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
ChApter 2: Identifying and tapping Maple trees . . . . . . . . . 7
ChApter 3: Gathering Sap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
ChApter 4: Cooking Sap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33
ChApter 5: Filtering and Bottling Syrup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
ChApter 6: Cooking on an evaporator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56
ChApter 7: Collecting Sap with tubing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66
ChApter 8: end-of-Season Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87
ChApter 9: Sugarhouse Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92
ChApter 10: Grading and Selling Your Maple Syrup . . . . . .96
ChApter 11: Making Other Maple products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .118
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For Dad. Thank you for passing on your knowledge
of the syrup industry and instilling in me your tireless work ethic.
— S.A.
For Mom and Dad. — A.K.A.
acknowledgMentS
Thank you to Sarah Dorison and Brenda Buck for reading and editing our
manuscript, and to Deb Burns and Sarah Guare, of Storey Publishing, for
their patience and encouragement.
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PrefaCe
Anderson’s Maple Syrup, located near Cumberland, Wisconsin,
has been a family-run business since 1928. There are about
2,500 sugar maples in our family sugar bush, plus another
2,000 maple trees just 5 miles down the road.
our roots
Steve’s family purchased the homestead in 1928, and as for
many Wisconsin families, the main source of income was dairy
farming. Paul Anderson, Steve’s grandfather, inspired by child-
hood memories of sugar making with his father, began tapping
trees and making just enough maple syrup for his family and
neighbors to enjoy. He collected sap with metal buckets and
spouts, and a horse and wagon carried it to the sugarhouse.
Paul Anderson cooks syrup on two 6-by-16-foot Leader Evaporators.
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There he boiled it to perfection on an open pan over a hand-
made stone and cement arch. Paul purchased the first evapora-
tor for the family in 1947 for $680 — a brand-new 5-foot by
16-foot King. As he sold more syrup, he was able to rely less
and less on farming for income. In 1957 he sold the last of the
dairy cows and turned to syrup making and syrup equipment
sales full-time.
Paul’s son, Norman, grew up helping his father care for the
sugar bush and learning how to produce sweet maple syrup,
and eventually Paul and Norman were running the business
together. They began selling syrup-making equipment in 1954,
when the family became a Leader Evaporator dealer. Anderson’s
is still a Leader dealer today.
Originally, equipment was delivered from Leader’s Vermont
headquarters to the North Woods of Wisconsin by train. The
train came through a nearby town and parked on a railroad sid-
ing, and Paul and Norman unloaded the train car there. Today
semi-truck loads of equipment and pallets of syrup go directly
in and out of the warehouse, located across the road from the
sugarhouse where Paul made syrup.
Peak Production
In the 1970s we were at peak production, tapping almost 18,000
trees with buckets on various pieces of land across Wisconsin’s
North Woods. Norman ran the business at this capacity for
about 10 years while he expanded the company and increased
syrup and equipment sales. Norman hired the company’s first
full-time employee in 1974.
vi Preface
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By 1980 we were able to sell far more syrup than we could
produce ourselves. Norman began purchasing syrup from other
local producers, who then bought syrup-making equipment
from Norman. Anderson’s Maple Syrup still operates on this
cooperative model. Norman’s son Steve sells equipment and
buys syrup from many of the same producers his father did, as
well as many others.
With fewer than 10 employees, Anderson’s is still a small,
family-run business, but the company now has a national, even
global, presence. Steve has increased syrup sales and taken the
Anderson label from a regional family staple to a national syrup
brand. We ship syrup to customers as far as Asia. We also have
an extensive syrup equipment business with a showroom and
a website.
Steve has added technological advancements to the busi-
ness by utilizing some automated equipment for packaging
and by modernizing the way sap is collected in the sugar bush.
These days you won’t find a single bucket hanging in the woods
in the Anderson’s sugar bush. We use a modern, tree-friendly
tubing system with vacuum, which moves the sap directly to a
collection site. From there the sap is transported to the sugar-
house for cooking and bottling.
Our family is proud to participate in Wisconsin’s Forest
Crop Law program and Conservation Reserve Program. These
are both voluntary efforts for agricultural landowners designed
to protect natural habitats and preserve them for future
generations.
Preface vii
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Conservation Programs
The Forest Crop Law (FCL) program, part of the Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources, encourages long-term sustain-
able management of private woodlands. In exchange for participat-
ing in FCL, landowners pay reduced property taxes.
The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a voluntary
USDA and Farm Service Agency (FSA) based program. This pro-
gram, available to agricultural landowners, encourages mem-
bers to use portions of their land to further conservation efforts.
Participants in CRP are provided with yearly compensation.
our Guide for You
We created this guide as a quick reference for beginning syrup
makers. We want to encourage those interested in syrup mak-
ing to tap their maples, so that the legacy and art of this rustic
tradition will continue well into the future.
We’ve included what we believe to be the easiest and most
straightforward methods for harvesting and cooking sap and
for filtering and bottling finished syrup. There are many varia-
tions in the way you can gather sap and make syrup, and inno-
vations are constantly improving the maple industry, but the
information in this guide is a good place to start.
We hope you find this guide helpful and that you have con-
tinued success in syrup making!
viii Preface
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ChaPter 1
tHe HiStory of
Maple Syrup
The maple syrup industry has evolved greatly since
Native Americans discovered how to make pure
maple syrup. Vast improvements have been made
in sap collecting and cooking methods and syrup-
making equipment. The basic process remains the
same, however: Boil sap to evaporate water and
make sweet, pure maple syrup.
native aMericanS diScover Maple Syrup
It is generally agreed that Native North Americans were
the first to make maple syrup. Various legends describe how
maple syrup was discovered:
the “sap-sicle.” The branch of the maple tree broke dur-
ing the late winter and sap flowed out of it. The dripping sap
froze into an icicle. The repeated thawing and freezing of
1
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